…are we resting, as mandated by Federal law? We are not. We’re right at work, filling in this blog. We’ve learned a few things recently and we want to share them with you. (1) Don’t go to Mesa, Arizona, at the end of August. As it turns out, Southern Arizona is meltingly hot this time of year. You wouldn’t think we’d be surprised by this but, hey, we aren’t all that observant. We went to Mesa’s own Arizona Natural History Museum a couple of days ago and the nearby bank sign proclaimed it was 111 degrees (F). We don’t know what that is in (C) but, still, too damned hot. (2) Something else we discovered is, don’t go to Mesa’s own Arizona Museum of Natural Historyunless you have children with you. There were dozens of kids running around the place and, from what we observed, they loved being there. They can touch a petrified dinosaur bone, or watch a pretend T. Rex yawn (we think that’s what it was doing), and they can even pan for gold. For older folks? Well, we just got depressed. One of the museum's displays is an IBM Selectric Typewriter and visitors were supposed to guess the purpose of the machine. Because it’s such an ancient artifact. Harrell looked at it and said, “I used to type on one of those.” Right about then, a couple of children gathered around him, hoping they could watch him yawn.(The image above? Harrell and Renée, enjoying downtown Mesa.) (Yeah, Harrell should have put on sunblock.) (3) If you are in Mesa at the end of August (or any day except a Sunday), stop at Mango’s Mexican Cafe. The food is really, really good but they were out of tamales. Now we desperately want to eat an order of their tamales. Meanwhile, while you enjoy a barbeque, or run off to see Guardians of the Galaxy for a third time, or simply soak in a tub while enjoying a glass of Picton Bay South Island Pinot Noir (cheap, Trader Joe’s, worth it), what are we doing for the rest of this holiday? We’re glad you asked. Three months ago, one of our writing friends told us that serials are climbing the sales charts on Amazon. Serials aren’t new: The Pickwick Papers was the serial that shot Charles Dickens to fame – he put out a new part of the story every month, from March, 1836 to October, 1837 – and several modern writers are now following his lead. Our buddy suggested we try one and we thought it sounded like fun. Putting our other work-in-progress on hold, we dug in, rolled up our shirt sleeves, and got to work. We were almost finished with the first draft…when our friend called. She was disheartened. Five segments in, her new serial is selling so poorly that she can barely drive herself to finish the tale. She tells us now, she thinks serials are overdone. People don’t want to buy ‘em, anymore. So, that’s – (4) – another interesting fact we’ve recently discovered. My but life is full of lessons, isn’t it? Watching: From Dusk Till Dawn the Series. We enjoyed the pilot. Now it’s time to see if the rest of it’s any good.Reading: Unsolicited by Julie Kaewert. It’s “A Booklover’s Mystery” and how can we lose? We like mysteries, we love books, and we think we’ll have a good time. You have a good time, too. We’ll see you next month.

Come on in! This

is the electronic home of Renée Harrell. Did you bring any wine?

Renée & Harrell

It's about time you got here.

We aren't kidding about the wine.This is where we talk about writing... ...our writing, mostly. We also discuss kiva.org, Hunting Monsters Press, the magic bakery, self-publishing, pseudonyms, life itself -- a bunch of things.